Hybrid bonds, special arrangement

But the outer s and p orbitals in carbon form four equivalent hybridized orbitals sp ), as shown in Figure 3.24. In this arrangement, there are now four unpaired electrons that can bond with other atoms. This leads to carbon being a special atom that can form all kinds of long chain molecules. You might also notice that with this hybridization, the valence electrons in carbon are as far from one another as possible. With the electrons as far away as possible from one another, this is clearly a lower energy situation than the one shown in Figure 3.23. 

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